Kyrgyzstan court sentences ex-leader Atambayev to 11 years in absentia | Politics News

Former leader convicted on charges of corruption and participating in mass unrest in the Central Asian country.

A court in Kyrgyzstan has sentenced in absentia exiled former President Almazbek Atambayev to more than 11 years in prison on charges of corruption and participating in mass unrest in the Central Asian country.

Atambayev’s conviction and sentencing came on Tuesday after the country’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial of an earlier lower court conviction.

In a new case, a court found him guilty of illicit enrichment, illegally acquiring land, and of participating in mass unrest in August 2019, when resistance to a special forces operation to arrest him left one person dead and many injured, Kyrgyz media reported on Wednesday.

Atambayev, president from 2011 to 2017, oversaw the republic’s first peaceful handover of power between elected presidents, but troubles mounted after he quickly fell out with his hand-picked successor.

Kyrgyzstan has been rocked by political turmoil, having seen three revolutions since it gained independence with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Atambayev was first arrested in a chaotic raid of his residence in August 2019, then temporarily freed amid a 2020 revolution, only to be rearrested months later.

He was eventually released from prison in 2023 on health grounds, travelled to Spain for medical treatment, and has lived abroad since.

Kyrgyzstan’s current president, Sadyr Japarov, said on Wednesday he would “consider granting amnesty” to Atambayev if he requested it.

“Six years have passed since the events. The situation has calmed down. I think the court could have been less harsh,” Japarov told the Kabar official news agency.

Japarov came to power as a result of the 2020 revolution.

The country had long been seen as one of the freest and most democratic in Central Asia, a region characterised by autocratic regimes.

But in recent years, rights groups have criticised democratic backsliding and an escalating crackdown on independent civil society and media outlets.